Purpose of Theory?

File: 20 KB, 545x693, prepetum mobily.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

Purpose of Theory? Anonymous Tue Apr 25 16:24:55 2017 No.8857637 [Reply] [Original]

What is the purpose of theory?

Can a theory be considered successful if it merely describes things and allows for their accurate predicting? Or must it penetrate into the 'why' of things and also explain away just why things are as they are?

Is it necessary for a theory to be reductionist? Should its goal be simplification of things? If so, how far should one go and how far is too far?

Consequently and lastly (and this is a matter of opinion, mostly), do/should theories converge towards some ultimate truth, a theory of everything, or instead diverge, with there being no one theory that would explain away everything and instead a theory for every subset of things? Would there even be a difference?

I'm sorry if the questions are dumb, I don't have any background in this. Asking because I want to build a theory for a game just for the sake of it.

Advanced search
Text to find
Subject [?]Search by post subject. Leave empty for any.
Username [?]Search for user name. Leave empty for any user name.
Tripcode [?]Search for tripcode. Leave empty for any.
Email [?]Search by email. Leave empty for any.
Filename [?]Search by image filename. Leave empty for any.
From Date [?]Enter what date to start searching from. Format is YYYY-MM-DD
To Date [?]Enter what date to start searching until. Format is YYYY-MM-DD
Image hash
Search in	All Posts OPs Only
Deleted posts	Show all posts Show only deleted posts Only show non-deleted posts
Internal posts	Show all posts Show only internal posts Show only archived posts
Order	New posts first Old posts first
Capcode	All Posts Only by Users Only by Mods Only by Admins Only by Developers
Results	Posts Threads
Action	[ Simple ]

/sci/ - Science & Math